GOLDEN, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs women's distance medley relay team lowered its NCAA qualifying time by six seconds and moved up the national performance lists on the first night of the Joe Davies Classic at Colorado Mines. Melanie Diep, Chelsea Martus, Molly Klotz and Chantelle Fondren ran 12 minutes, 6.69 seconds to win the relay tonight.

The program-record adjusted time of 11:42.66 will put the Mountain Lions into No. 6 in the Division II performance lists with one weekend of qualifying left before the national championships. As a comparison, the NCAA accepted 13 teams last season, which puts UCCS into good position for qualifying for the championships this season. The Mountain Lions will have the second-fastest time in the RMAC with the conference championships next week.

Diep ran 3:46 in the 1,200-meter portion to lead off the Mountain Lions. Martus ran 59 seconds in her 400-meter section before her handoff to Klotz, who ran her 800-meter leg in 2:16. Klotz's time was three seconds faster than her time in either the relay or open 800-meter run in her career. Fondren finished the relay with 5:03 in the mile.

The second distance medley relay team of Makenzie Urban, Marah Guzman, Natalie Polei and Kylie Johnson ran a provisional qualifying time of 12:31.39. The adjusted time of 12:06.54 is No. 23 in the national performance lists. The Mountain Lions are one of five teams in Division II with two distance medley relay teams to reach the provisional qualifying mark.

Abby Topper finished second among collegiate runners and fourth overall with 19:57.26 in the 5,000-meter run tonight. She was the first Mountain Lion to run a 5K this season and is No. 17 in the conference performance list.

UCCS will continue action in the Joe Davies Classic on Saturday morning.